85.23 miles, 5:09 moving time, 1,969 ft elevation gain.

On long days, the weather matters. And today, we had nice weather. Crisp in the morning and sunny all day long. Some headwinds on the southbound half and tailwinds on the northbound half. Whew, it was a long ride, but felt good.

Club started in Sierra Madre Starbucks and rolled to Encanto Park, with a little mis-direction by Trevor. Picked up Alvin along the way. No pick ups in Encanto, probably cuz it’s a giant loop and not returning here. We rode the whole San Gabriel River Trail. Along the Santa Fe Dam and then straight down the SGRT. At Whittier Narrows, regrouped briefly and up the dam and down the SGRT. Marisa’s first time on the bridge and steep twisting onramp to the SGRT. The tunnel of doom was actually well lit! The tunnel with the black wall was treacherous as ever. We saw coyotes and swans in the fairly dry river bed. We faced some real headwinds for the last 8-10 miles. We got off SGRT and rode over 2nd Street. Urgent potty stop at Gelsons. Said ‘hi’ to Michael. Rode over to Starbucks and saw the A-Group! We had a snack / coffee / refill / potty stop. Rolled up Los Angeles River Trail and Lower Rio Hondo and Upper Rio Hondo River Trail. We had favorable tailwinds coming north. Philip and I were fading by the time we got to the Arcadia Golf Course. We made our way back to Sierra Madre. Peanut butter smoothies. Yum.

This ride is part of our Training for Solvang Double Metric (Mar 20). Training for Mulholland Challenge (Apr 10).

PaulG, Eric, G, Daryl, Trevor, PaulM, Philip, Mark, Sue, Bill, Lynda, Ryan, Steve, Julien, Rick, Marisa, Joe, Alvin.